Anyhow, there never was any watch kept up on shore, though.

I have no doubt there was many a one who had been pressed into pirating just as I was, to save their lives, would have made off had they seen ever such a little chance of getting away.
"'Just come into the cabin with me,' says he; 'I want you to show me exactly where are these batteries, and the position of the village on shore.' "The first lieutenant came too, and I drew them out a chart as well as I could, showing them the position of things, and told them that every evening a boom was floated across the entrance.
"'What sentries are there on at night ?' "'Four, sir; two close down to the water, one each side of the cove, and two in the batteries at the top.

That's the watch, but besides there are six men sleep in each of the other batteries, and six in each of the batteries inside.' "'Tell me more about the place and the life you led there,' the captain said, 'and then I shall understand the position of things better.' "So I spun him a regular yarn about the place and the people.

I told him about the captain's wife, and she being an English woman, and how she was taken, which indeed was the way of most of the women there.
"'I suppose that a good many of the men were pressed too,' the captain said.
"'I expects so, sir; but when we were together on guard or on board a ship I noticed we never talked of such things.

It seemed to me as if every one was trying to forget the past, and I think that made them more brutal and bloody minded than they would have been.